Making my limoncello has finally finished! One or two weeks ago I removed the lemon/alcohol solution from the bottle and did the final mixing steps. First of all I had to do some calculations as I had no idea which concentration of alcohol, sugar and water I wanted to achieve in the final product.

There are so many limoncello recipes out there – and they will all produce obviously different tastes and end products. But I had no idea which ingredient would influence the taste in which way so I made up different batches of sirup (with a sugar content of 31%-45%) based on the recipes i had found online.

I let the sirup cool down and meanwhile removed the lemon-alcohol from the lemon zest. there was a very strong lemon stell present – surprise!

I then measured out the alcohol for my three sirup batches – 38% and roughly 60% (which I may further reduce in alcohol content at one point) and poured into the waiting bottles.

The best thing was that my measurements which I had calculated seemed to add up perfectly to this point! Most websites seem to calcluate the wrong density of sugar, but the 1,6 conversion rate (100 ml sugar = 62,5 g) gave me roughly the quantity of sirup I needed.

So – then the alcohol and the sirup was mixed – the bottles labeled and then put into the freezer to mature for a bit more and really mix those two ingredients! In about two weeks time we will have a tasting session to see which one of the six versions actually tastes best!

One week over and the alcohol has already got quite a yellow colour. There is a destinct lemon smell but the alcoholic note is still dominant. Next week i should take out the lemons, but that could be a problem due to me being in Italy. I guess it should be okay to keep it in a few days longer.

One week over and the alcohol has already got quite a yellow colour. There is a destinct lemon smell but the alcoholic note is still dominant. Next week i should take out the lemons, but that could be a problem due to me being in Italy. I guess it should be okay to keep it in a few days longer.

After reading about this in magazine about 12 years ago while on a holiday in Italy and wanting to this for about the same amount of time I have finally started the first step of making my own limoncello.

It’s quite a simple recipe :

1 Litre 95% proof alcohol,

11 lemons

800 g sugar

1 l of water

So – on my last skydiving trip down to Italy I bought a bottle of 95% proof alcohol as the price per litre down there is around 10€ and can be bought in any supermarket. Try getting that in Germany – only in a pharmacy and not below 60€ per litre.

So – on Saturday I finally sat down and removed the zest of the lemons, quite carefully as not to peel of any of the white rind, which adds a bitter taste to the finished product.

I then filled the zest into a big bottle and added the alcohol. So far – so simple. Now – after about 30 hours later, the alcohol has already started to turn slightly yellow and parts of the zest have come off.

Now I have to wait for about two weeks and then I will add the self made sirup from the water and sugar. I will actually have to go through quite a few different types of recipes I think. They vary from 600 g of sugar up to 1200 and also varying amounts of water – no idea how sweet or strong I want to have the finished product… I will keep you updated.

Not usually the one to do a years review – but as this was a particularly good year, here it goes!

I learned how to skydive and completed 39 skydives this year, bringing my total up to 41! I had my scary moments, but overall the pure awesomeness of jumping from a plane is just one of the best things I have experienced in my life so far. And in the end it all comes down to have some friends with you to share the experience! Thanks again Dima!

And it’s also awesome to have some friends to provide you with awesome soundtracks for your videos 🙂 http://soundcloud.com/mljt if you want to hear some more of this music

Then I had an awesome holiday in Dubai with my girlfriend. I ate my bodyweight in humous, had some wonderful alone time and experienced an unforgettable day at a waterpark and one of the best dinners of my life at a Nobu restaurant. You can see parts of our day at the waterpark here below.

I then started a new job in February after six years in the old job. Short summary: Learned a lot, worked a lot, met new people, some of whom are starting to get good friends. On the Travel part: 25 car rentals, same amount of train tickets (I’d guess) and hotel reservations. Several awesome parties. A very good decision.

I also moved into my new flat and found out how much whisky I acquired over the years and had stored away in numerous boxes. Some happy times this year, trying to taste one or the other of these whiskies 🙂

As most of you know I enjoy making the odd star wars lego stop motion video around christmas time. unfortunately the 2011 christmas video turned out to be full of bugs in the production phase and didn’t meet my personal quality control – so it took some time until I built the whole thing up again but this time with some help from friends. A very fun and very drunk weekend – and we had our awesome video! Next year we will have the ultimate masterpiece – the victory class star destroyer!

I also got the opportunity to take part in the BMW driving experience! Several models including the 328, 335 and M3 – a fun day out, I managed to drive the fastest time from our company group AND made my passenger puke – I take that as a compliment!

Apart from all this stuff I had some awesome short getaway brakes at Lago Maggiore, a long weekend in Paris and overall so much good time!

I pushed myself far beyond my existing limits and in the process learned new abilities and more about myself than I had previously thought possible. I never used to be a fast driver on a racetrack before, always coming second to last – this year I managed to score first. 2012 was a good year! And I am guessing 2013 will be even more awesome!

Ah. The Forester. Happy days in Australia – beaches, driving up mountains…. but on the German road? Well as I was battling a cold, cruise control on 140kph and enjoy the ride. This one had a reverse view camera, which was quite nice. But still the seats are far too small for anyone over 180cm.

Have a happy fucking weekend, everyone. After the most surreal train trip – 20-30 finnish rollercoaster engineers in the train bistro with a finnish speaking waitress (what are the odds) … I am finally in what I am beginning to call home… Freiburg.

Kelpie whisky, wheat beer and a monte Christo cigar…..

Have a great fucking weekend everyone. Do what you love. Love what you do.